Florida HOA Laws: What Every Homeowner Needs to Know About Their Rights
By Timothy O’Neill, Partner
Homeowners’ Associations (HOAs) were created to maintain community standards, protect property values, and manage shared amenities and services. By enforcing rules and providing a structure for collective decision-making, HOAs can create ideal living environments. However, this is not always the case. With some HOAs quickly enforcing regulations or handing out fines, homeowners must understand their rights.
On July 1, 2024, new Florida laws limiting HOAs were enacted. In Palm Beach County and throughout the state of Florida, HOAs may no longer:
· Enforce rules on some residents but not others.
- Ban homeowners or their guests from parking personal, business, or first responder vehicles (including pickup trucks) that are not commercial vehicles in their driveways or any other area where they have a right to park per state, county, and municipal regulations.
- Ban contractors or workers from the homeowner’s property.
- Residents cannot be fined for leaving garbage cans at the curb or the end of their driveway within 24 hours of a scheduled trash collection.
- Fine residents for leaving up holiday lights or decorations outside the HOA’s rules without prior notice, after which the homeowner has one week to take them down.
- Limit or create rules for the inside of a structure that isn’t visible from the street, a neighbor’s property, an adjacent common area, or a community golf course.
- Ban vegetable gardens or clotheslines that can’t be seen from the street, a neighbor’s property, an adjacent common area, or a community golf course.
- Require review and approval of plans for a central air conditioning, refrigeration, heating, or ventilation system that isn’t visible from the street, a neighbor’s property, an adjacent common area, or a community golf course and is similar to previously approved systems.
Other changes to the Florida HOA laws include acceptable limitations, increased transparency, more accessibility to management, training for directors, and bribes, which are now considered a felony.
The New Parking Regulation
A quick examination of one of these provisions is merited. The change to HOA parking regulations is provided in Fla. Stat §720.3075(3)(b), which provides:
(b) A property owner or a tenant, a guest, or an invitee of the property owner from parking his or her personal vehicle, including a pickup truck, in the property owner’s driveway, or in any other area at which the property owner or the property owner’s
tenant, guest, or invitee has a right to park as governed by state, county, and municipal regulations. The homeowners’ association documents, including declarations of covenants, articles of incorporation, or bylaws, may not prohibit, regardless of any official insignia or visible designation, a property owner or a tenant, a guest, or an invitee of the property owner from parking his or her work vehicle, which is not a commercial motor vehicle as defined in s. 320.01(25), in the property owner’s driveway.
The next relevant question is what constitutes a “commercial motor vehicle” under Florida Statute 320.01(25).
(25) “Commercial motor vehicle” means any vehicle which is not owned or operated by a governmental entity, which uses special fuel or motor fuel on the public highways, and which has a gross vehicle weight of 26,001 pounds or more, or has three or more axles regardless of weight, or is used in combination when the weight of such combination exceeds 26,001 pounds gross vehicle weight.
To put that into context, one of the heaviest pickup trucks you can purchase is a Ford F450 Super Duty Crew Cab with a curb weight of 8,600 pounds. As such, most, if not all, vehicles that consumers use will be exempt from HOA parking restrictions adopted after July 1, 2024. The fact that the vehicle is a pickup truck or bears a company logo on its door will no longer be determinative.
Despite these changes to the Florida HOA laws, some homeowners continue to need help with HOAs. You may have seen in the news that some HOAs state that these regulation changes do not apply to them because they have not incorporated “Kaufman Language” in their declaration or the “as amended from time to time” language subjecting it to future statutory changes to the Condominium Act. If you live in an HOA, you should check to see if this language appears in the HOA documents. If it does, then these statutory changes most likely apply.
However, even if there is no Kaufman language in an HOA’ declaration, that is not conclusive. The new statute must survive three tests to determine its constitutionality as applied to an existing HOA declaration: 1) the procedural vs. substantive test, 2) the retroactive/remedial intent test, and 3) the degree of the impairment test. We expect litigation over some or all of these statutory changes.
If you are currently dealing with an HOA that doesn’t respect your legal rights, the trusted attorneys at Pike & Lustig can ensure your rights are protected.
